1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to high-reliability amplifiers employing passive, automatic switching between parallel channels.
2. Description of the Prior Art
For many years manual switching has been used to compensate for amplifier network failures by removing a defective amplifier from the network and replacing it with an operative amplifier. In unattended systems or systems where brief shutdowns cannot be tolerated, such as unattended phased array radar, automatic switching has been used to improve the reliability of amplifier networks. Unfortunately, such automatic switching requires comparatively complex circuitry and additional components which may themselves limit the reliability of a network in which they are included. Recently, there has been interest in using parallel amplifiers to provide a network of increased reliability resulting from the greatly lowered probability of joint failures compared with the probability of failure of a single amplifier. The present invention provides an amplifier network which improves reliability through automatic, passive swtiching between parallel circuits while providing a constant level of output power.